Man charged in woman’s shooting was on probation for involvement in fatal shooting of 17-year-old
A Lexington man charged in connection with a shooting last week that left a woman with life-threatening injuries was sentenced to probation four months ago for his involvement in the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old.
Elijah Adams, 19, has been charged by the Lexington Police Department in connection with a shooting Sept. 19 on the 3500 block of Laredo Drive.
The woman who was shot told police Adams shot her with her own handgun because he wanted to keep the gun “against her desire,” according to a police uniform citation filed in Fayette District Court.
“Therefore, the victim’s injuries occurred from a handgun while the suspect was in commission of a theft of the same handgun,” the citation states.
The woman was shot in the abdomen and leg, according to the citation.
Adams was being held in the Fayette County Detention Center Tuesday night on charges of first-degree assault, first-degree robbery, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon and probation violation.
The jail website indicates that Adams was booked into the facility Sept. 20.
In May, Adams was sentenced to five years of probation for his role in the fatal shooting of Michael Proctor in August 2020.
Adams was originally charged with murder, but he pleaded guilty to an amended charge of criminal facilitation to murder.
In sentencing him to probation, Fayette Circuit Judge Julie Goodman said at the time that Adams had already been in custody for two and a half years and probation would be more beneficial.
“When you sentence someone to five years, they are eligible for parole after serving 20 percent, so to send him to the penitentiary will do the community and this young man more harm,” she said. “He will be out in a few months, and when he is out, he gets off scot-free. If he had not served any time, I may feel different, but my concern is, he is at this time only 19 years old, his brain is not developed until 26, for men.
“If I let him out without supervision, without individuals to hold accountable, or me able to charge with probation violation and put him back in jail, I feel he will never have true consequences.”
Adams was 16 at the time of Proctor’s shooting and was not the person who pulled the trigger, the judge said at the time.
A probation revocation hearing before Goodman is scheduled for Oct. 5, court records show.
A preliminary hearing in the Laredo Drive case is scheduled for Oct. 2.
